As the name suggests, a warning lamp serves the role of warning observers to dangers and providing other reminders. Such lamps are typically used in road safety applications, helping to reduce traffic accidents and warn drivers of potential hidden dangers. Warning lamps may be incorporated in vehicles and equipment. For example, emergency vehicles such as police cars, fire engines, and ambulances may include warning lamps. Other examples include road maintenance vehicles, construction vehicles, tractors, and other vehicles that operate in areas where it is beneficial to provide warning of some condition to observers. And warning lamps may be included in related machines and equipment.
Warning lamps on a vehicle may come in different lengths depending on the type of vehicle and the particular applications involved. A warning lamp may include a structure with a lampshade assembly, and a side of the lampshade may be designed with a combination of colors as needed. Warning lamps may incorporate several different light sources, such as shift bulbs, LED flash, xenon lamp strobes, and the like. Each has different features, and may lend itself to different applications. For example, LED flash is an upgraded version of the shift bulb and offers longer service life, better power saving, and less heat.
The use of the warning lamp may have a significant effect when used properly. For example, a construction vehicle may light up the warning lamp during a road construction project, particularly in the unclear road conditions at nighttime. Accidents may occur easily in such road conditions, and people unaware of the situation may be prone to accidents or cause traffic congestion. A warning lamp on a construction vehicle may inform drivers encountering the project and may reduce these problems. Similarly, a warning lamp may be useful to cars and other vehicles during extended driving. During such trips, drivers who encounter problems may choose to stop and pull-over to the side of the road. The drivers may set up a danger warning lamp behind the vehicle to ensure safety and alert other travelers to watch out for the obstacle, so as to slow down and drive safely. A good warning lamp may offer an expanded visible range of the danger warning sign and provide suitable warning to other drivers at distance. Thus, it may be beneficial to use a warning lamp.
An emergency siren is one type of warning lamp. Emergency vehicles, such as police cars, fire engines, ambulances, and the like, carrying out a mission may use a siren to alert other drivers and indicate that they may drive without following the limitation of traffic lights or even drive in an opposite lane. Pedestrians and vehicles in the vicinity are generally obliged to give way to emergency vehicles in this situation. Emergency vehicles are typically required to install a legally issued siren, or be subject to certain penalties.
In addition, a police car in the process of handling an emergency case may use the siren not just to clear the way in driving to the scene of crime, but also to scare away criminal suspects. Since an emergency case occurs so suddenly without any warning, a policeman rushing to the scene of a crime has limited information about the operation and situation. As one purpose of the police action may be to minimize the loss caused by such an event, the siren may serve to limit further criminal activity. As a blind pursuit of a criminal suspect on the spot may have a lower likelihood of success, this result may be desirable.
For example, when a police command center receives a report on an armed robbery, the situation may not allow the police to try and sneak up and arrest the subject. Such actions may allow the suspect time to complete a crime in progress, flee the scene, or further endanger bystanders before the police car arrives. In general, these risks may be deemed too significant a cost to capture the criminal. Thus, a siren warning lamp may be used to alert and scare the criminal suspect, and the criminal conduct of the suspect can be stopped effectively while further harm is minimized. Although it may be more difficult to capture the criminal afterward, it is typically deemed better than risking an innocent human life.
Conventional warning lamps as described above are simple devices and do not include advanced features. Sirens and other warning lamps may offer various lighting controls, but generally do not offer intelligent features such as image recognition in surrounding areas. The prevalence of warning lamps on vehicles, such as emergency vehicles, may be leveraged to provide advanced functionality in common warning lamp usage scenarios. For example, aspects described herein may provide improved functionality in a law enforcement scenario, assisting a user in recognizing a target and automatically ejecting a deterrent in the direction of the target.